Trump says he’d ‘love’ to see the government shut down over an immigration law impasse

President Trump would "love" to see another government shutdown if he doesn't get his way on immigration legislation.

"If we don't change it, let's have a shutdown, we'll do a shutdown, and it's worth it for our country," Trump said on Tuesday following a White House roundtable about MS-13 gang violence.

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"I would love to see a shut down if we don't get this stuff taken care of."

Trump wants $25 billion for border security, including money to build a wall along the southern border that he promised to make Mexico pay for.

He also wants to curb legal immigration by restricting the relatives that legal immigrants can sponsor for citizenship and ending a lottery that distributes visas to people from a diverse group of countries.

Trump blasted the "stupidity" of current U.S. immigration law.

President Trump speaks during a meeting with law enforcement officials on the MS-13 street gang and border security in White House on Tuesday. (Evan Vucci/AP)

In exchange, Trump promised to protect nearly 700,000 young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, plus another 1.1 million undocumented migrants.

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), who attended the White House meeting, said he doesn't think the government will shut down over immigration policy, despite Trump's comments.

"I don't see that in the offing," he said.

The White House tried to walk back the President's comments a short time later.

"We are not advocating for the shutdown, that's the fault of the Democrats not being able to do their jobs," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

Rep. Pete King said he doesn't believe the immigration policy will result in a shutdown, despite Trump's comments. (Susan Watts/New York Daily News)

"We had one Trump shutdown, nobody wants another, maybe except him," he said. Trump had referred to that brief January shutdown as "the Schumer shutdown."

Democrats, who have balked at Trump's hardline immigration proposals, are working with Republicans on a budget that will fund the government for two years and planning to tackle immigration afterward.

Trump, who set off the current immigration deadlock by ending the Obama-era program last year and shot down a bipartisan proposal on Monday, is not likely to extend the March 5 deadline when work permits expire.

A court case has allowed it to keep running for now.

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted Trump for being the only person who wants a shutdown. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

White House chief of staff John Kelly said Tuesday that the undocumented "Dreamers" wouldn't be priorities for deportation.

Disagreements over the fate of recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program forced a three-day government shutdown last month.

The short-term spending bill approved at the time runs out on Thursday.

House Republican leaders, meanwhile, passed a bill Tuesday night to keep the government open for another six weeks by adding a year's worth of Pentagon funding to another stopgap spending bill.

But Schumer said that approach won't pass the Senate, where leaders were closing in on a larger, long-term deal.

Trump, flanked by Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen (c.), meets with members of Congress and law enforcement about crime and immigration issues at the White House on Tuesday. (JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS)

"There are still some outstanding issues to be resolved, but we are closer to an agreement than we have ever been," Schumer announced on the Senate floor after meeting with Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

"I think we're on the way to getting an agreement and getting it very soon," McConnell said.

Donald Trump in the White House

"You can say what you want — we are not getting support of the Democrats," Trump shot back.

The possibility of another shutdown had many whose livelihoods depend on the federal government on edge.

"It's just incredibly difficult, not only for federal agencies, but for scientists and others to work with all of this uncertainty," Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told the Daily News. "There's a lot that just can't be done without knowing when grants will be approved."

Rosenberg said he was disappointed by Trump's threats to shutter the government again.

"He's supposed to be leading the government," he said.

"Even if they decide to have another short term spending bill, it only adds to the uncertainty," he added.

"Day to day, it just seems like the parks are closed, but it really degrades the ability for all of the agencies to do what they are meant to be doing in the long-term."